Nigeria Releases N460 Billion For 2018 Budget

The Nigerian government has released the sum of four hundred and sixty billion naira for the implementation of the 2018 budget, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, has disclosed.

The minister made this disclosure in Bali, Indonesia on Wednesday after meeting with a delegation of Afreximbank officials on the sidelines of the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

Udoma also informed pressmen that more money will be released if the National Assembly approves the executives request for another round of.

According to the Minister of Budget, “the amount of capital releases as of today is N460 billion. We just need a resolution of the National Assembly on the Borrowing Plan then we can fund it even more. We are spending money on N-Power, School feeding, Trader Moni. We are conscious to meet the needs of the vulnerable.”

Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, also revealed that after her meeting with Afreximbank team, there is an understanding that Nigeria may likely increase its shareholding in the bank because of the value such increased shareholding holds for Nigeria.

According to Zainab Ahmed, “part of what we discussed is the possibility of increasing our shareholding and we discussed some of the projects and programmes that Afrexim is supporting in Nigeria. Afrexim has a very large portfolio in Nigeria. About 40 percent of the bank’s portfolio is in Nigeria with support to the government but largely to the private sector. We have the need to increase our shareholding in the bank because there is a lot of value that we are getting from Afrexim Bank.”